Message from the President

Welcome to the website of the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan (NCAC).

Message from the President

Reappointment of NCAC President and the fourth medium-term objectives period

On April 1, 2018, NCAC entered the fourth medium-term objectives period of five years. I was reappointed as the President of NCAC by the Prime Minister Abe.
In Japan, each incorporated administrative agency shall make a medium-term plan to accomplish medium-term objectives set by the Competent Minister, and shall carry out the objectives based on an annual plan. The outcome shall be evaluated by the Competent Minister. Therefore, NCAC is committed to implementing the fourth medium-term plan in the five years.
The medium-term objectives include the following new tasks.

Consultation service for inbound international visitors

It is expected that there will be more and more international visitors to Japan, particularly in the years before the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic games. Therefore, NCAC will launch a telephone consultation service for non-Japanese speakers who have visited Japan and faced problems in transactions with businesses in Japan, with use of interpretation service through a three way call system.
In addition, NCAC will seek to provide helpful information for inbound international visitors in foreign languages (e.g. issuing alerts on likely problems faced by foreign travelers).
NCAC will also seek to further increase overseas partners for the Cross-border Consumer Center Japan to resolve disputes between consumers in Japan and businesses based abroad.

Next renewal of PIO-NET

PIO-NET is a database that collects information on inquiries concerning consumer affairs by linking NCAC with local consumer affairs centers across Japan via an online network. The database grows by about 900,000 consultation cases per year. With use of the database, consumer affairs consultants seek to prevent and resolve consumer troubles. The database is also used as basic data for formulating consumer policies, lawmaking and preparing law enforcement.
The last renewal of PIO-NET shortened the number of days between receiving and registering an inquiry, and transformed PIO-NET from "a recording tool" into "a useful tool for handling inquiries while receiving them". In preparation for the next renewal, NCAC will consider introduction of new technologies such as text-mining, artificial intelligence, etc.

50th anniversary of NCAC

The year 2018 marks the 150th anniversary of the Meiji Restoration. Japanese ministries and agencies planned and organized activities to look back on the 150 years. On February 27, 2018, NCAC held a national consumer forum titled "Our lives and consumer issues ? in the year of the 150th anniversary of Meiji Restoration". This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the Consumer Protection Fundamental Act, which is the predecessor of the Consumer Basic Act. It means that the most recent one third of the 150 years coincided with the period of full-scale consumer policy development.
In October 2020, when the first half of the fourth midterm objectives period will pass, NCAC will celebrate its 50th anniversary. In commemoration of the anniversary, NCAC will plan and organize some activities to look back on our achievements in parallel with the history of consumer issues and consumer policies.

Last but not least, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to consumers, consumer associations, businesses, business associations, researchers and specialists, who have supported or will support our service. Thank you.